By now we're all fully aware of the election and subsequent protests in Iran.

So I'll offer you this little tidbit for your brains to nibble upon:

What if...

The elections and subsequent protests took place in the United States? Wouldn't our own civil agencies use teargas and shoot us? So why are we making such a flap about it happening overseas?

I give you, as evidence, Kent State, and countless other protests over causes both just and unjust, morally 'right' and morally 'wrong', legal and illegal throughout the 1960's, and the government's reaction to all of the above.

So here we sit in "the land of the free" UNDER a Government which is (or at least is supposed to be) by, of, and for the people, yet these things occurred, and still occur today.

Why are we surprised it's happening in Iran? Does the fact that it's happening elsewhere make us feel better about ourselves, or are we truly sympathetic to their cause? How many average Americans can even tell precisely what these protests are about, or even name the opposing candidate?

The one thing a customer service specialist can never teach is 'being nice.'

I believe it's comparable to the US's early days of Democracy, it took a revolution for it to happen and you became a Republic, lots of angst and shooting going on back then, so Iran is trying to break free of the religious yoke that is the "Supreme Leader" and it's going to get uglier, the proverbial genie is out of the bottle...

Don't forget you guys have had over 200 yrs of freedoms (pause for the Civil War of course), so it's grown on you, and as with everything else today and as can be seen with each election, "apathy" has struck and so no one cares anymore, the feds are weaseling their ways into everyone's lives be it big brother or just an excuse to keep the country safe, the freedoms everyone fought for way back when are being slowly eroded. So Iran, which has lived under different forms of tyranny, either the Khan or the Shah and now the Clerics, the younger generation over there that were born after 1979 are exposed to the internet and the rest of the world and their world has gotten bigger and they see where the Clerics and Revolutionary Guard have sold them down the river and they want changes...

So now we're around to Comerade Obama condemning the actions of Iran's government - how'd I somehow know this was going to happen? We've again pissed of someone (as if Iran could hate us more) all over an issue that's local to their own country and having absolute ZERO to do with ours. Grrr.

The one thing a customer service specialist can never teach is 'being nice.'

He's only condemning the Human Rights issues, he's not hell bent on pissing them off like Senator McCain and the rest of the Republicans want him to do, so they can box him in like Carter and Clinton and achieve some sort of moral high ground.I think he is playing this close to the chest, he is not going to give the 'Supreme Leader" and his Guardian Council or Revolutionary Guards,the excuses they desperately need to turn this into an Iran vs US/UK thing instead of what it really is..."internal struggle"...if they can deflect the blame against outside interference, they will be able to smother the growing embers with atrocities against their own people. Why do westerners not give the Iranians credit where credit is due, when you see the Supreme Leader or Revolutionary Guard thugs, they are not the face of the majority of the Iranians, they are an educated and sophisticated people, and unfortunately got conned by the mullah's or clerics during the adrenaline rush of 1979...sort of "Patriotism", only their version....

Obama is being careful....his most recent words were stern in regards to the deaths of the protesters, not against the regime, and unlike Bush who railed against the Axis of evil and then proceeded to invade the wrong country, is doing quite well according to the latest polls...

My question isn't whether or not Obama's a wuss like the Republicans do. My question is why are we even bothering to address this at all? They're killing their own people. It's their country, their government, their populace, and their mess - let them deal with it. If they do it wrong, their own people will handle it quite bloodily without our assistance thankyouverymuch.

Nothing has happened in Iran over this election that didn't happen in both the US and UK at one time or another.

But while we're on the issue of Comrade Obama... WTF? Throw out a trillion dollars in economic stimulus then try to socialize healthcare too?

Tax and spend boyo..that's all I gotta say. Tax and freakin spend.

The one thing a customer service specialist can never teach is 'being nice.'

Wow |ce quick to judge and blame, the guy has been your president for how long? And as for it's Iran's problem...Lol....read up on some American Foreign Policy History there and see if it is really all Iran's fault they are in the pickle they are in....

I'm rather in the same boat with a lot of things going on world-wide...Iran could sink into ocean and I'd not lose sleep over it just like North Korea doesn't care one iota about following the signed conventions set for the protection of nuclear devices world-wide by a broad group of countries. Let them have a hung voting scene, who cares? That's an issue that's happened in every country known to man since the dawn of time and it's some big deal? It's nothing new, it won't stop, it's in a country that's had tyrannical reign for God knows how long, etc etc etc... Kinda reminds me of the 2004 election where the ONLY state that had problems with the vote count was Florida where interestingly enough, is run by Jeb Bush.

In the world of protection, one thing is for sure: security = 1 / convenience.